Visual clipping indicator in Waves L4

Feature Requests
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Waves L4 is quickly becoming my favorite limiter. It has all the features I need, sounds amazing, and it’s capable of running at very-low-latency which is just awesome.

I have one small request:

Could we get a clipping indicator? Even just a simple dot that illuminates when clipping is happening.

The gain reduction indicator is great, but as a user I’m left wondering how much of that is from limiting vs. clipping. I know “all that matters is what we hear”, but dialing in the sweet spot of clipping is difficult because it’s subtle.

Even the simplest visual indicator would be useful feedback for dialing in the clipping amount.

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Oh I get ya. It’s so you can mainly use it for its soft-clipping element. You want to know when that is getting hit, before it gets to limiting. Good idea.

Hey, didnt you request a new limiter a few months back?!?

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Right, and they just knocked it out of the park. My two most-used limiters before were Pro-L 2 and Ozone Maximizer… It’s like they combined the best of both and then packaged it with the familiarity of their L series classics.

I could carry on for pages with excitement about all their new tools that have come out over the last few years. Seriously, it’s hit after hit. Scheps Omni Channel 2, SSL EV2, Sync Vx, Clarity Vx, CLA Epic, Magma series, CR8, IDX, and more.

Mercury was probably the best purchase I ever made, and their additions have been so good I reup-my-WUP every year because I know it will pay off.

But I still use a bunch of Abbey Road Collection tools as well.

If I had one big wish, I wish the HiDPI updates would come out faster! I work at 4k resolution and I still use a lot of older Waves tools. But they’re getting to them bit by bit.

Anyhow, I’m overjoyed with this new release. It really does tick all the boxes for me… And that low-latency mode means I can use it with aggressive mode (34 samples @ 48khz which is just 0.7ms!) on submixes and mix bus for about the same latency as a single instance of some of their older L series plugins. That’s brilliant, for use during composition which is critical for me.

I’ve learned to build up my density in stages, so I like the limiter in Scheps Omni Channel. It catches the transients that slip through the compressor. Then I tend to like AR TG Mastering Chain on submix busses - but it has no limiter. Now I can use L4 Aggressive mode right after.

My biggest personal discovery was learning to tame inaudible transients at each stage of the mix – tracks, submixes, and master bus. Working that way the mix builds up to whatever density (loudness) I’m going for – naturally.

And L4 is a big part of that process now, thanks to the impressively low latency!

Anyhow, sorry to carry on. I’m just very excited! I can’t wait to see what they do next. :smiley:

2 Likes
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You’re right about the HiDPI updates, they’re taking way too long with them.

I also like to do things in stages like you. I prefer not to over process tracks, but use each stage as chance to process elements together for more character and cohesion instead of relying more on heavily on the master buss.